Thursday, February 14, 2013

"It is tragic that they have decided to filibuster this qualified nominee," said Reid. "It is really unfortunate."

There is no better example of Republicans in the Senate putting Party over Country then the fact at noon tomorrow, Secretary of Defense Panetta officially leaves office which means the Department of Defense will not have a permanent Secretary of Defense, but acting. Republicans should be ashamed with their attacks on Hagel especially on Benghazi which he had nothing to do with but they are trying to score political points against President Obama. This group of cowards who are afraid of a Tea Party primary challenge don't deserve to be reelected to the Senate ever again if they vote to continue the filibuster when you read the following:

NATO is hosting Defense Minister meetings next week in Brussels where the allies will discuss the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

A meeting of NATO on Afghanistan and we have no permanent Secretary of Defense thanks to the obstructionist Republicans who keep opposing Obama on everything. This is one more obstruction in a long list that has a lot of Republicans saying they will not support or vote for a Republican in 2014 including this one.

Majority Leader Reid weighs in on the GOP Filibuster of Chuck Hagel showing the hypocrisy of Senate Republicans once again:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he has scheduled a cloture vote for Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Defense Secretary for Friday morning.

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, Reid lambasted Republicans for their “unprecedented” obstruction on Hagel (this is the first time in the history of the United States that a president’s nominee for Defense Secretary has been filibustered). “It’s shocking,” Reid said, “that my Republican colleagues would leave the country without a fully empowered Secretary of Defense during all the things that we have going on in the world including a war”:

REID: I have heard speeches from the other side a lot saying, “you know the president should have the right to choose whoever he wants.” He has the support of this body, a majority vote in this body in this democracy. We are a nation, Mr. President, at war. We are whether we like it or not the world’s indispensable leader. We’re it. For the sake of our national security it’s time to put aside this political theatre and that’s what it is.

People are worried about primary elections. We know how the Tea Party goes after Republicans when they aren’t conservative enough. Is that something they need to have on their resume? “I filibustered one of the president’s nominees.” Is that what they want? The filibuster of Senator Hagel’s confirmation is unprecedented. I repeat. Not a single nominee for Secretary of Defense ever in the history of our country has been filibustered. Never, ever!

“We need a Secretary of Defense,” Reid said later. “It’s tragic that they’ve decided to filibuster this qualified nominee. It is really unfortunate.” Watch the clip:

However, NATO is hosting Defense Minister meetings next week in Brussels where the allies will discuss the ongoing war in Afghanistan. “We need our new defense secretary to be there,” a White House spokesperson said today, calling the GOP obstruction “unconscionable” and adding, “It does not send a favorable signal for the Republicans of the U.S. senate to delay a vote. …It’s difficult to explain to our allies why that’s happening.”

Congress is going on a week's recess next week for President's Day which is one day. They have been back in DC for six weeks and already need a week off? Sequestration coming up on March 1st and they take next week off? The 112th Congress was the most do nothing Congress in modern times but the 113th is starting out worse. The House GOP may be the laziest group of Representatives ever as they were on vacation last year more than they worked. Guess a week's recess is more important then confirming a Secretary of Defense or working to avoid Sequestration?

Why are GOP Senators filibustering Chuck Hagel when it makes the Republican Party look nastier and spoiled sports after they lost the election. The way this group of GOP in the Senate is going, they will never win the White House unless they move back to the center right after all of their lies and innuendos against President Obama and now his cabinet picks. Inhofe has gone so far as to say he doesn't think Obama should be picking the Defense Secretary. Talk about stupid - it sounded like he was inferring that Obama was not smart enough to pick his own cabinet. Obama won the Presidency by 5 million votes but Republicans refuse to acknowledge with winning elections comes being able to choose your own people which Inhofe and other Republicans refuse to acknowledge.

Majority Leader Reid weighs in on the GOP Filibuster of Chuck Hagel showing the hypocrisy of Republicans once again:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he has scheduled a cloture vote for Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Defense Secretary for Friday morning.

In an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, Reid lambasted Republicans for their “unprecedented” obstruction on Hagel (this is the first time in the history of the United States that a president’s nominee for Defense Secretary has been filibustered). “It’s shocking,” Reid said, “that my Republican colleagues would leave the country without a fully empowered Secretary of Defense during all the things that we have going on in the world including a war”:

REID: I have heard speeches from the other side a lot saying, “you know the president should have the right to choose whoever he wants.” He has the support of this body, a majority vote in this body in this democracy. We are a nation, Mr. President, at war. We are whether we like it or not the world’s indispensable leader. We’re it. For the sake of our national security it’s time to put aside this political theatre and that’s what it is.

People are worried about primary elections. We know how the Tea Party goes after Republicans when they aren’t conservative enough. Is that something they need to have on their resume? “I filibustered one of the president’s nominees.” Is that what they want? The filibuster of Senator Hagel’s confirmation is unprecedented. I repeat. Not a single nominee for Secretary of Defense ever in the history of our country has been filibustered. Never, ever!

“We need a Secretary of Defense,” Reid said later. “It’s tragic that they’ve decided to filibuster this qualified nominee. It is really unfortunate.” Watch the clip:

However, NATO is hosting Defense Minister meetings next week in Brussels where the allies will discuss the ongoing war in Afghanistan. “We need our new defense secretary to be there,” a White House spokesperson said today, calling the GOP obstruction “unconscionable” and adding, “It does not send a favorable signal for the Republicans of the U.S. senate to delay a vote. …It’s difficult to explain to our allies why that’s happening.”

From James Fallows at The Atlantic comes more information about the filibuster of Chuck Hagel:

As has been evident for some time, Hagel has majority support in the Senate for his confirmation as secretary of defense. As has become increasingly evident these past few days, much of the opposition to Hagel has become a parody of itself. Former Republican Senator and foreign-policy grandee Richard Lugar, himself the victim of a Tea Party challenge, said yesterday that the attack on Hagel was "unfortunate and unfair." Meanwhile the publisher of the Omaha World Herald answered allegations that Hagel (who represented Nebraska) was anti-Semitic with an article headlined, "Impressive Omaha Jewish Support for Chuck Hagel," and Aryeh Azriel, the rabbi at Temple Israel in Omaha, said that accusations that Hagel was anti-Israel were "extremely stupid."

The new development is reported by Josh Rogin on Foreign Policy's The Cable blog, which says that several Republicans intend to filibuster Hagel's nomination -- but are looking for some way to weasel around the word "filibuster." They don't like that word (a) because they have tried to normalize the idea that a 60-vote super-majority threshold, which is the margin required to break a filibuster, should be seen as the routine requirement for Senate action of any sort; (b) because several prominent Republicans, including John McCain, have already said that they don't want to filibuster Hagel; and (c) because in the long history of Cabinet-level nominations, outright filibusters are either unknown or exceedingly rare. You can get all the details on their extreme rarity from the Congressional Research Service.

Rogin points out the machinations through which the Republican opponents of Hagel (a Republican) are trying to insist on a 60-vote threshold without calling it a filibuster. For instance, he quotes our old friend Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, plus Sen. John Cornyn of Texas:

Inhofe's demand for 60 votes is related to his overall objection to Hagel becoming defense secretary, which is based on Hagel's past record on issues ranging from Iran, Israel, Hamas, and cuts to the defense budget. Inhofe also wants Hagel to further disclose financial records related to his past speeches.

"We're going to require a 60-vote threshold," Inhofe told The Cable.

Cornyn told The Cable, "There is a 60-vote threshold for every nomination."

Cornyn may think that, but it is not so. As a matter of history, it has obviously not been the case for Cabinet nominations; and as a matter of legality, it is true only if the opposition is willing to transform the balance of American politics by filibustering every nominee.

Turn to Rogin for more, including curlicues like this (emphasis added):

Inhofe insisted that his demand for a 60-vote threshold is not a "filibuster." Inhofe said he will object to unanimous consent for a simple majority vote, which will prevent Reid from bringing the Hagel nomination to the floor without first filing for cloture, which requires 60 votes to proceed to a final vote.

"It's not a filibuster. I don't want to use that word," Inhofe said.

(snip)

But I am anything but agnostic about the tactics being used against Hagel. They started with personal smears, and they've led to this new version of Congressional obstructionism. It will be a shame all around if these tactics "work." This is a fight the administration should take on, and be sure it wins.

Now Inhofe doesn't want to use the word filibuster but wants to require sixty votes when only 51 votes are required?

This is it for me when it comes to the Republican Party unless there is a huge change in the future. For 2014 and 2016, I wouldn't vote for any Republican for Congress or President after what we have been witnessing. These Senators are so afraid of being primaried they won't stand up to the Tea Party or should we say Koch Brothers? How about grow a spine and do what is best for the Country and not worry if you are going to be primaried. Selling out the Country to keep a job as a member of Congress shows a great lack of integrity and a willingness to see the Country go down because some Republican doesn't want to be tea partied in the primary. Vote 'em out in '14!